ISIS & media (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

By an odd coincidence a quite different "think tank" has published a report with a much wider remit today too; the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. It opens with:

New research from the Centre on Religion & Geopolitics finds a common ideology communicated through the propaganda of three leading jihadi groups. Read our summary of the report's key findings and how these can inform our response.

Link:http://tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/...de-jihadi-mind

It gets a ringing endorsement from Professor Bruce Hoffman:

..a needed and incisive analysis of one of the core issues behind the current jihadi threat, the manipulation and exploitation of scripture to provide a religious justification for their violence....this is the single best work I have read on the ideological foundations and theoretical underpinnings of the ongoing wave of jihadi violence. Accordingly, it makes a valuable contribution both to the literature on terrorism and radicalisation and to the measures and efforts needed to most effectively counter the appeal of the jihadi message.

Tony Blair himself was speaking in NYC today:http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...ed-by-muslims?

[davidbfpo]

Thanks to a "lurker" a German TV documentary (30 mins), which covers Germany, Spain, Israel and more. From the website:

The terrorist organization Islamic State, IS for short, is carrying out an aggressive internet campaign that's aimed at spreading fear in Western countries. Videos of IS atrocities are posted almost immediately after they happen. The videos often appear on social-media sites linked to IS. Islamic State also uses the internet to recruit new members. Western security experts are concerned about IS's digital capabilities, and fear that they may try to hack into key utilities or government agencies.

Link:http://www.dw.com/en/internet-terror...gy/av-18793897

[davidbfpo]

I have merged six threads here and changed the title.

This thread should be read in parallel with the main Beyond the frontline watching ISIS thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=21084

[davidbfpo]

From Kings College ICSR a short commentary that ends with:

Put together, there are signs that IS’s much vaunted media machine has declined over the past half year. It remains very active, of course, but there seems to have been a peak between mid-spring and mid-summer this year. This, I believe, could be indicative of other structural issues IS could be having on the ground. It also suggests that military victories rather than counter messaging has a stronger effect on the media capabilities of jihadi groups.

Link:http://icsr.info/2015/12/icsr-insigh...-media-output/

[Bill Moore]

Terror on Twitter, by P.W. Singer and Emerson Brooking (Popular Science)
How ISIS is taking war to social media-and social media is fighting back

http://www.popsci.com/terror-on-twit...o-social-media

The core of ISIS is seasoned veterans of the Iraqi insurgency that followed the 2003 U.S. invasion. Well versed in the power of the media, they have been joined by a new generation of Millennial recruits. The average age of foreign fighters who traveled to join ISIS is 24, meaning tools like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are what they've grown up with. In the context of global jihad, this is a dangerous combination.

The article then goes on to illustrate how ISIS is using social media (and most understand, it isn't limited to radicalization). After this the article explains how governments and non-government organizations like Anonymous are using social media to fight ISIS, with short but sufficient descriptions of doxxing, DDoS, sabotage, content alternating, twitter account hunting, etc.

Together, this loose coalition seeks to rob ISIS of one of its most powerful weapons: kicking it out of the very social-media ecosystem that helped give it life.

I have little faith that mass efforts of counter radicalization will every accomplish anything, and in many cases will backfire. However, denying, or even disrupting, ISIS's use of social media should have a telling effective when combined with effective law enforcement, intelligence, and military operations.

[AdamG]

http://www.ydr.com/story/news/crime/...rter/77501800/

A Pennsylvania 19-year-old pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, used Twitter to spread its propaganda and had a backpack with ammunition that suggests he might have been plotting an attack, federal authorities said Thursday.

Jalil Ibn Ameer Aziz, of Harrisburg, was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of attempting to provide material support to terrorists. He had an initial court appearance and will be held pending a detention and preliminary hearing next week.

Court documents said a "go bag" or "tactical-style backpack" found in Aziz's closet during a Nov. 27 search contained a high-capacity magazine loaded with ammunition, a modified kitchen knife, a thumb drive, a tin filled with medicine and a full face mask similar to those worn by Islamic State militants. Aziz may have been "preparing to conduct or assist others in conducting an attack in the United States," according to a criminal complaint.

[AdamG]

Despite widespread media reports to the contrary, an app created for Islamic State militants to send private encrypted messages does not exist, a Daily Dot investigation found.

On Jan. 12, Defense One reported that the Islamic State allegedly built a new Android app called Alrawi for exchanging encrypted messages, based on claims from self-proclaimed online counterterrorism outfit Ghost Security Group (GSG). The claim was quickly reprinted by Newsweek, Fortune, TechCrunch, and the Times of India—the largest English-language newspaper in the world—among many others.

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/isi...messaging-app/